Education on cougars next step

Meeting to explore living safely around the big cats.

Meeting to explore living safely around the big cats.

February 10, 2006|JEFF ROMIG Tribune Staff Writer

ST. JOSEPH -- The question: Are they here? The answer: Yes. Berrien County Animal Control officer Val Grimes told the Board of Commissioners that it's not a scare tactic. Cougars are present in Berrien County, and now the goal is to inform the public on how to live with them. "They're here," Grimes said during Thursday morning's meeting. "We're going to have to live with them." Grimes' department, in conjunction with the Michigan Wildlife Conservancy and the Department of Natural Resources, will host a cougar information meeting in Berrien Springs from 7 to 10 p.m. Feb. 25. Grimes said since Thanksgiving she's received several calls every weekend from residents with cougar sightings. She said 99 percent of them turn out to be nothing. "But there have been some very, very good calls from reliable people," she told the board. Grimes said her time working on the cougar issue has been 99 percent personal time. "You don't just stand out there and say, 'Here, kitty, kitty,'" she said of tracking the animal. "When people call, you have to go." The presence of at least one cougar in Berrien County was confirmed on Dec. 9 when a doctor from the Michigan Wildlife Conservancy confirmed that it was a large cat, and not a dog or coyote, that mauled a horse in Watervliet the weekend after Thanksgiving. "It's as airtight as you can get in my opinion," Dr. Patrick Rusz, director of wildlife programs, said following a necropsy that was performed on the horse in December. Grimes said Thursday that now they believe at least two cougars are roaming about the county. She said animals should be in barns at night, and pets should not be allowed to run loose at any time. In December, Rusz said they determined that it was a cougar because of the bite marks on the horse. He said at least six of bites went through the bone and another eight were "fairly deep," ripping at least 1 3/4 inches into the horse, which he said is consistent with the length of a typical cougar fang.